Mold manufacturing optimization: a global approach of milling and polishing processes

Within the context of molds and dies production, frequent changes in design and increased competitiveness require an overall optimized manufacturing process. The finishing process is typically composed of an accurate milling stage to manage shape deviations, followed by polishing operations to reach required surface roughness. Local improvements of milling and polishing set independently do not necessarily lead to an optimal manufacturing process planning. This study aims to propose a method to improve the whole sequence of milling and polishing considering constraints from polishing process and machine tool. The turning point between milling and polishing operations consists in linking them by the evaluation of the surface topography obtained after milling. From there, thanks to a predictive model of surface roughness, the design of polishing operations can be performed, and polishing time evaluated. On the other hand, for a given machine tool and a desired intermediate surface topography, milling parameters for finishing can also be modified and actual machining time predicted. Thus the whole process is evaluated balancing the milling and polishing times to reduce the total manufacturing time. Experiments are carried out on an aluminum mold for blowing process of plastic bottles. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B. V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).